We Didn't Start the Fire
by jak981125
Summary: A followup to Go Your Own Way. Lau is wrongfully imprisoned on the Bebop.


Session 2 WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE by jak981125 

Author's note: This work is part of a series. It won't make sense if you don't read the earlier sessions.

The very first thing that Lau noticed when he came to was how badly his head hurt. The second thing he noticed was how sensitive he was to light when he tried to open his eyes. The third, and most unpleasant thing he noticed was that his hands were shackled behind his back through the rungs of a ladder. He seemed to be sitting in someone's living room. No wait, this had to be the inside of a spaceship. He could tell from the noises he was hearing around him that he was in hyperspace. That's when he remembered what had happened to him. Two bounty hunters grabbed him at his apartment. He hadn't gotten a look at either one of them. Then he had heard gunshots and found himself being flung back into the apartment. That was the last thing he remembered.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," said that same female voice he had heard in the apartment. He hadn't noticed a girl in a yellow two- piece outfit painting her toenails on the couch. "Hey Jet! Rip Van Winkle here is finally awake!" Lau wished she wouldn't shout. His head throbbed horribly. A moment later he forgot all about his headache. One of the most intimidating looking men he had ever seen walked into the room. He was bald, muscular, had a beard, and his left arm... it was metallic! So that was the guy that grabbed him by the throat!

"Sorry about the concussion, friend," the man said to Lau. "Me and Faye are usually way more delicate with our bounty heads. Some syndicate guys showed up in the hallway and started shooting at us. What did you do to tick off the Red Dragons?"

Lau didn't answer that. He knew he hadn't been the target. These were buddies of his who came to give him a ride to work and fired to protect him. "Did you return fire?" mumbled Lau.

"Sure did. Killed all three of 'em. You can thank me later," replied Jet. Lau gave out a low groan.

"Talk about lack of gratitude. You'd think that after saving your sorry hide you would at least thank us," scoffed Faye.

Lau sat back wondering what on earth these two could have possibly arrested him for. He didn't have any outstanding warrants to the best of his knowledge. He had skipped out on his bail after a bar fight on Venus but that was two years ago and certainly wouldn't have warranted a ten million wulong bounty. And why would they be in hyperspace? I mean, that would make sense if they were heading for Venus, but the amount of the bounty still didn't make sense. His bail there was less than a million and these two had him for ten million. What was the deal here?

Jet and Faye apparently didn't think it was worth continuing to talk to Lau. They ignored him and started to argue over who should get what share of the bounty. Apparently Faye felt she was entitled to more than fifty percent since she had flirted with enough guys in that neighborhood for one of them to reveal where Lau lived. "Come on Jet, I had at least two proposals of marriage from a couple of guys who had about five teeth between the two of them!"

"So why didn't you take them up on it? At least you'd be out of my hair!"

"What hair you have left that is!"

Jet failed to see the humor in that last remark. He made an angry grumbling noise and left the room.

"Excuse me, but what did you arrest me for?" asked Lau.

"For ten million wulongs...SIX MILLION OF WHICH ARE MINE!" Faye shouted the last part out for Jet's benefit. If he had heard he certainly didn't show any signs of it.

"No, I mean what was the charge?" asked Lau, starting to wonder if he was on board a floating insane asylum.

"You don't even know? Gees, how many crimes have you pulled? You've lost track already?" scoffed Faye again. Lau couldn't help but notice she looked a little cute when she was pouting but thought better of it.

"Look, let's just say I have a very bad memory here. What particular charge are you bringing me in for?" asked Lau.

"According to the bounty hunter database here, it says you committed arson back in San Francisco."

"What!"

"Yeah, it says you torched the house of some construction company executive. The statute of limitations was about to expire which automatically doubles the bounty," replied Faye.

Now Lau knew he had something to be afraid of. He knew exactly what she was talking about. He had nothing to do with that fire. He wasn't even living on earth at the time. His dad had worked for this construction company for years to build domes over San Francisco. These domes kept pieces of the moon from hitting anyone. The hilly terrain made the job very difficult and the pay was very low. In fact the work was so tough, his dad had a coronary right on the job site. It took him two weeks to die. Around that time it was discovered that the pension fund for all the workers was not so secure. To put it another way, there was no pension fund. An executive in the company had been putting all the pension withholdings into an elaborate money laundering system and he kept the profits. His claim to the workers when the lack of funds was discovered was that he had been giving them their full salaries all along and that there had been no withholdings due to a computer glitch. No one was dumb enough to buy that but the police wouldn't investigate for fear that the domes wouldn't be finished if the company went down. Shortly afterwards, the man's house was burned to the ground. Rumors began to fly and somehow his dad was accused. Lau was sure that his father wouldn't have done such a thing but he died so soon afterwards that he never had a chance to discuss it with him. Lau's mother lost track of the number of times she had to tell police who called that her husband could not come to the phone on account of him being dead. You would think after the first few calls that someone would have made a note of it. Lau's father was Lau Xiang Sr.

Lau tried his best to explain the circumstances to Faye. His father had the same name. The cops never put it into their records that his father was dead. Surely this was all one big mix up. Faye simply smirked and showed him the computer screen. "You telling me that that's not you?" Lau couldn't believe it. Next to the information about what his father had supposedly done, was a mugshot of himself! He groaned as he recognized the mugshot as the one taken after he had been arrested on Venus. The database had down his father's supposed crime but it had his picture. But that was way more than Faye was willing to believe. Lau was frustrated. It had occurred to him that he had committed three murders as a Dragon that he'd never been caught for as well as several incidents of racketeering. Maybe he had no right to gripe about something so minor that he was being arrested for whether he did it or not. But part of him was so angry about the way his dad had been treated that he couldn't help but think that no one should be punished for giving that jackass at the construction company what he deserved.

Just then Jet came back in. "Hey Jet, you're not going to believe the load of crap this guy just handed me. He says that this arson was actually done by his father (who has the same name) only he didn't do it, and it doesn't matter if he did because he's dead now," laughed Faye.

Jet wasn't much in the mood for humor right now. "OK pal, this construction guy, was he in on something with the Red Dragons? Three of them were after you when we went to pick you up. We've had more than our fair share of run-ins with them and we want to know why they were after you and if they'll come back." Lau didn't answer.

"Man, I would have thought these guys would have been crippled after that skunk Vicious bit the big one," complained Faye.

"That's my brother-in-law you're talking about there!" blurted out Lau. Oh no! Why did he have to go and say something like that for?

"Your brother-in- law!" shouted both Jet and Faye in unison. Well now that the cat was out of the bag, Lau figured he might as well get the whole story out. He told them about how he himself was a Dragon, how those three guys had come to escort him to work, not to kill him but he didn't put in any other details (especially not about Spike).

"Man, I knew I didn't like you. Any relative of Vicious is an enemy of mine," snarled Jet.

"Former relative. My wife's dead, remember? And what have you got against the guy? He was no saint but I don't think he ever went after any bounty hunters," retorted Lau.

"Oh didn't he?" replied Faye. "He kidnapped me, the Dragons shot Jet, he sent an attack on this ship here..." Faye's little tirade was interrupted as alarms began to go off all over the ship.

"Now what!"

Jet was about to get an answer to that one. A huge explosion rocked the whole ship terribly. They could hear the emergency system shutting off a locker on the lower deck, meaning the hull had been breached there. "Oh man, that's right where Ed and Ein used to sleep. If they were still here they might have been killed," moaned Jet. The Bebop was under attack. It turned out there was a fourth syndicate guy at the apartment that Jet and Faye did not see since he didn't attempt to shoot it out with them. As soon as he had seen what happened he assumed that Faye and Jet were sent from a rival syndicate to kidnap Lau. Maybe the White Tigers had gotten word that Lau was scheduled to take out one of their top men that day. He followed the Hammerhead and Faye's rental car (the trunk of which contained Lau) back to the Bebop. Now other syndicate ships had caught up with them and were attempting to rescue Lau.

"Oh great! Jet, we have company! It's the Red Dragons. There are at least seven ships on the radar screen," yelled Faye.

Jet grabbed Lau by the collar in a threatening manner. "Call 'em off!"

"Why should I? I already told you I didn't do that arson," replied Lau coolly.

"You'll do it because if you don't I'll break both your arms!" screamed Jet. Something occurred to Lau at that moment. This was obviously an empty threat. If Vicious had made a threat like that he may very well have carried it out. But this guy seemed to be a decent guy who was just scared out of his wits and would never hit a prisoner on his ship. Lau could see all this in Jet's eyes. He wanted to call them off, but what could he tell them? "I'm not being kidnapped, I'm being arrested for something I didn't do but don't come after me because I'm leaving the Dragons anyway!" Yeah, that would work.

"I can't say anything that would help. I'm sorry," mumbled Lau. He really was sorry. He didn't want to see these people hurt by the Dragons in any way.

"Fine, then don't come crying to me when the whole ship gets blown up with you inside," growled Jet. Faye had already taken off in the Redtail to do battle with the Dragons. Jet entered the hangar and took off after her in the Hammerhead. The weapons system wasn't great. All it had was one harpoon and one machine gun. But it was better than sitting back and getting killed, that was for sure. At least he had a chance this way. Faye had always been a fantastic pilot, rivaling even Spike. She dodged enemy fire and shot down two enemy ships with ease. It wasn't quite as easy for Jet but he was managing to stay in the fight pretty well. Both of them were holding their own against the Dragons, but both of them were wishing Spike was there to help.

Back on the ship, Lau felt frustrated and helpless. In anger he banged his head on the ladder. Big mistake! His head had just begun to stop hurting but now it ached twice as bad. However, banging his head brought about an interesting revelation to Lau. The spokes of this ladder were hollow! Lau had been pretty good at martial arts himself. His specialty had been Akido. Unlike Spike's Jeet Kune Do, Akido was a more passive martial art that relied more on techniques like arm locks. Nevertheless, Lau could still kick pretty hard and it didn't take him long to break off the ladder rung. He noticed that Faye had left out her pedicure set on the couch. Taking a metal nail file, he wasted no time in picking the lock on his handcuffs. He was free and Jet and Faye weren't there to stop him.

Lau figured there had to be some escape pods on the ship somewhere. Bebop was not a large ship and would not be easy to get lost in, especially with most of the lower deck sealed off. However, somehow Lau managed to get himself turned around a little. Since there is no air in space or hyperspace, Lau couldn't hear how the battle was going. He just started opening doors, looking for a way out. It was completely by accident that he stumbled upon the hangar, and when he did, he saw something that made his blood boil with rage. It was the Swordfish. There was no mistaking it. He would have recognized that ship anywhere. He was there the day Spike got it. He had even been allowed to take it out for a spin once. What were these cowboys doing with Spike's Swordfish? He felt like a chump. Here he was starting to think these two were honorable people and here they had stolen something that belonged to an old friend of his. An old friend that had tried to kill him a few weeks ago, but an old friend nonetheless.

Julia was dead. Lau had never heard Spike mention having a family. These guys certainly didn't have a right to it. Lau decided there and then that if anyone had a rightful claim to the Swordfish it was him. Upon taking a closer look, he saw that these guys had left the key in the ignition. He hopped in and started up the ship. He had been worried about how to open the hangar door and was contemplating using the plasma cannon to blast it open. He needn't have worried. After a short search he found a big blue button clearly labeled "hangar door".

Within moments he was out in space. It had been a while since he had piloted in hyperspace and he hadn't anticipated the amount of rumbling he encountered. He took one look back at the battle behind him and his heart sank. Reinforcements had shown up. Jet and Faye were alive but both their ships were badly damaged. If you may remember, Lau was a man easily driven to guilt. He couldn't just leave them. He would go and save them from the Dragons and then take his leave of them. It hadn't occurred to him where he would go, but he knew he couldn't stick around.

Lau sped off after the largest ship first, knowing it would pack the most firepower but would also be the slowest and easiest to attack. His knowledge of vessels used by the Red Dragons paid off. One plasma blast to the cockpit and the ship went out of control and crashed into another ship, destroying them both. Faye and Jet were both astounded at the arrival of the Swordfish. Oddly enough, it didn't occur to either one of them immediately that their prisoner was flying it. Their first instinct was to think that Spike was back from the dead. I know it sounds silly, but it was the first thought that crossed both of their minds.

The next ship Lau faced was more of a challenge. Before he could get close, it fired a missile at him. He threw the Swordfish into reverse and tried to target the missile with his plasma cannon. Just as he had a lock on it, the missile split into thirty individual warheads. One of them missed Faye by inches. Lau had to play an amazing game of tag to avoid all the warheads. The ship that had fired the missile in the first place was destroyed accidentally by one of his comrades. He had fired at Faye with a guided missile but she flew towards the enemy ship in a way that caused the missile to hit it instead of her. Lau flew right at two other ships head-on causing them to crash into one another and then he shot down a third. The Dragons must have decided that rescuing Lau wasn't worth the beating they were taking. The ships all retreated back towards the nearest gate.

Lau had no time to celebrate. He figured neither the Redtail nor the Hammerhead were in any condition to stop him from escaping and that this would be his perfect time to make an exit. He was wrong. The harpoon on the Hammerhead struck the side of the Swordfish. Trying to escape was impossible. The harpoon had ruptured the fuel line. Jet knew exactly what he was doing. Lau found himself being towed back to the Bebop.

As soon as they had landed and the hangar doors were closed, Jet jumped out of the Hammerhead with a drawn pistol and ordered Lau to come out. He seemed angry. Lau couldn't resist a chance to rub it in. "I guess I'm not the only one around here who doesn't know how to say thank you," he gloated.

Jet was not amused. "Just shut up and get your hands where I can see them," he growled.

It had taken Faye a moment longer to get out of her ship but as soon as she did, she shouted to Jet, "What are you doing? This guy saved our lives back there. We should be letting him go, not punishing him for doing the right thing!"

"Let him go? Then you'd miss out on that six million you were drooling over. The people at the horse track wouldn't like that one bit," retorted Jet sarcastically. But as soon as he had said it, he was sorry. Faye got mad and stormed back into the ship. Lau found himself being cuffed again.

"Before we go back in there's something I want to know," said Lau. "What are you clowns doing with that ship over there? Don't try to tell me that it's yours. I know that ship. It's the Swordfish and it belonged to an old friend of mine named Spike Spiegel."

Jet paused for a moment. "I should have figured you knew Spike," he replied. "If you were a Dragon then it makes sense you would have known him. Spike was my partner for more than three years."

This was a shocking revelation to Lau. "I never heard anything about Spike working as a bounty hunter after he left!" exclaimed Lau.

"Well he did. He was as good a cowboy and as good a friend as anyone I ever knew," replied Jet.

"So you two were buddies?"

"Buddies! I took him in. I put up with him for three years. I donated my own plot to bury that fuzzy haired weirdo. I even paid extra to have Julia buried next to him. Now that's friendship!" boasted Jet. Lau fell silent. He had assumed this guy was a thief. It turns out he was the most recent friend Spike had. He had merely recovered his friend's property after his death. And he hadn't even tried to fly it or sell it. Most likely he was just keeping it there as a memorial.

"I was there the day Spike raided our headquarters and killed Vicious," Lau finally said after a long silence. "I know Julia was killed but he never really seemed like the vengeful type to me. Not even when he was with the syndicate. I can't believe he did all that." Now it was Jet that fell silent. Lau used his shackled hands to untuck his shirt and show Jet his wounds.

"Spike did that to you, did he?" asked Jet with a slight smirk. "Did he take your hand, too?"

"No," replied Lau. "That was Shin."

"Good old Shin. Did I tell you that he saved me and Spike when the Dragons came after us right after the coup?" asked Jet.

"I'm glad I wasn't the one who killed Spike," was Lau's only reply. "I should have just stayed out of his way. Nothing I could have done would have prevented what happened. I wanted both Spike and Vicious to stay alive but I guess that was just impossible. I still never saw Spike as the vengeful type, though."

"He wasn't," replied Jet. "It wasn't about vengeance, it wasn't about Julia either. Vicious would never stop. He sent ships after us, he shot a friend of Spike and Julia, he sent an assault team after them, and he had Julia killed. He would never give up and every time he made an attempt on Spike's life, it seemed like more innocent people were getting caught in the crossfire. Spike did what he felt he had to do. It's that simple."

As Jet ushered Lau back inside the ship, they met up with Faye again. "Well those people at the track will have to take someone else's money for now," she smirked.

"What are you talking about, Faye? The statute of limitations is still good for twelve more hours. We should be in San Francisco by then," replied Jet.

"Is that so? Take another look at this guy's profile on the database."

Jet bent over and looked. "Name: Lau Xiang... Bounty: ten million wulongs... Place of Birth: San Francisco..."

"Oh skip all that and look at the date of birth already!" interrupted Faye. "OK, let's see here, August nineteenth... TWO THOUSAND TEN!"

"It was his father after all! Let him go, Jet," ordered Faye.

Lau's cuffs were removed. "I'm awfully sorry about this. Honestly, this kind of mix-up has never happened before," stammered Jet.

Lau smirked. "You know, I could sue you people for false arrest if I really wanted to milk this whole thing," said Lau.

"You said could. That means you don't intend to, right?" asked Jet hopefully.

"Well there is a little something you can do for me," replied Lau.

"OK, name your price," sighed Jet. He knew this guy had a good case against him. It was a shame that things were turning out like this because he was just starting to like him and now he was being blackmailed.

"Well I had plans to leave the syndicate. I can't go back to my apartment now. In fact I have no place to stay at all. So I was wondering..."

Jet gave Faye a panicked look. "Is he saying what I think he's saying?" asked Jet.

"I don't know and I have no opinion," smirked Faye. She was beginning to like the idea of having an attractive young man like Lau on board. Jet sighed. He was not a loner no matter how many times he had tried to convince himself that he was. He was secretly happy to have had Spike, Faye, Ed, and Ein living with him. But he was tired of feeling like a nursemaid.

"Me and Faye don't need any more bounty hunters," he finally replied.

"Who said anything about me being a bounty hunter? I just want a place to crash for a while until I'm back on my feet," said Lau.

"Oh no you don't! Anyone who stays here has to earn his OR HER keep." This last part was directed towards Faye who pretended not to hear.

"OK, I guess I could do some bounty hunting. Either way, I've got you right where I want you. You have to say yes." Jet growled and muttered some words I wouldn't dare repeat here, but the end message was that Lau could stay. Inside Faye was rejoicing but kept that to herself.

"OK, since you are the newest member of the Bebop, you get to pick the next bounty head we go after. Just don't pick anyone on Europa cause it's really windy there this time of year and it would mess my hair up," said Faye with a smile.

Lau strode up to the bounty database and looked around for a few minutes. "Here's one. Six million bounty, huge debtor, not considered a dangerous target," called out Lau.

"That's great," replied Faye. "That would be an excellent first case for you. What's the name on that bounty head?"

"Faye Valentine," Lau replied with a smirk.

"You have to sleep sometime," Faye warned in reply.

SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY

(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is just fan


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